Warfarin Use by Hemodialysis Patients Found Safe

Warfarin use by hemodialysis (HD) patients does not increase their risk of death and cardiovascular events, findings from a prospective cohort study suggest.

In a study of 1,057 HD patients from 111 centers in Japan, investigators found that warfarin users were not at increased risk of all-cause mortality or a composite outcome of all-cause mortality, stroke, cardiovascular disease, and peripheral arterial disease in adjusted analyses, according to an online report in Clinical and Experimental Nephrology. Increasing age, however, was associated with an increased risk of these outcomes.

For the study, Matsuhiko Hayashi, MD, of the Keio University School of Medicine in Tokyo, and colleagues compared 365 warfarin users and 692 non-users. Warfarin users were dialysis-vintage-matched with non-users from the same HD center. The mean age of warfarin users was significantly higher than that of non-users (68.8 vs. 66.9 years). Clinical data were collected at study entry and every 12 months for up to 36 months.